Paul-Andre Walker, Staff Reporter
JAMAICA WILL go into the second game of the 20th Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Cartagena, Colombia, against Costa Rica tomorrow with the distinct advantage of already having beaten Haiti 2-1.
Two teams from the three-team group will make it to the quarter-finals of the competition to be played in Barranquilla and Cartagena at the weekend and Akeem Priestly's 43rd and 65th minute penalties on Sunday have given Jamaica the edge.
The team is set to return to the island on July 31, one day after the competition finishes.
Yesterday, at press time, Costa Rica were playing against Haiti with the Jamaicans hoping for the former to win, thus making the final game of mere academic importance.
The Jamaicans do, however, want to make an impression after coach Wendell Downswell had said his team had a real chance of medalling in these games with a team that he says has the highest retention rate of all the national squads.
Interestingly, Jamaica have never medalled in football at the CAC Games.
In Sunday's starting line-up, for instance, Akeem Priestly, Jermaine Taylor, Nicholy Finlayson, Rafe Wolfe, Richard West, O'Brien White and Keneil Moodie have all been playing together for a number of years.
Nathan Koo-Boothe, Joel Grant, Shaun Francis and goalkeeper Dwayne Kerr completed the team.
To be fair, Jamaica's performance might not have been that good as Haiti ended the game with eight players after three were ejected.
The Jamaicans had to go through qualification for the CAC Games in Suriname where they beat the Dominican Republic 1-0 and Suriname 5-1 to earn the sole spot from Group Five.
